Olympic uniforms made in China will be sad for USA

Wednesday

Aug 1, 2012 at 10:00 AMAug 1, 2012 at 1:25 PM

Opening ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games should be interesting.

Every host country does its very best to put on an amazing presentation to wow the crowd and dazzle the folks watching on TV. But when the United States athletes come marching out, it will be disappointing at best.

By Dominic GenettiGateHouse News Service

Opening ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games should be interesting.

Every host country does its very best to put on an amazing presentation to wow the crowd and dazzle the folks watching on TV. But when the United States athletes come marching out, it will be disappointing at best.

It won't be the athletes themselves -- I'm sure they'll do great. But it's what they'll be wearing that'll make me hang and shake my head.

In case you haven't heard, the United States athletes will be wearing specially made suits by Ralph Lauren. Sounds nice for a company like Ralph Lauren to step up and do that, doesn't it? Well here's the catch: The uniforms were made in China, and along with that Chinese-made suit comes a French-style beret.

Yes, it's the truth, and it has sparked quite a controversy lately. And I can't help, but join in on the chiming.

Is this what we've become? A country that can't even provide uniforms for their athletes on the global stage that are produced "in-house"? When the U.S. athletes come out in the opening ceremonies, it'll be nothing more than a salute to China and France. It's like the United States is saying, "Thanks for the clothes and hat design." It'll also - unfortunately - be the United States displaying their dependency on other countries.

We're the richest, most powerful country in the world, and we can't even produce American-made uniforms for our athletes. It's sad, absolutely sad.

Ralph Lauren should have had second thoughts -- they should have just made the uniforms in the U.S. -- so everyone could just hate the ugly French hats, but no, they didn't.

I sure hope the next company that volunteers to make the U.S. uniforms learns from this. And if Ralph Lauren does get the green light to produce uniforms for the athletes again, hopefully they understand peoples' concern.

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